6/28/2007

Two NBA thoughts

First NBA thought: Robert Horry owes Bill Russell and apology
"Who is the best player of all-time" is probably the most popular sports debate topics ever. Rarely is there one conclusive answer to the question - as there are varying viewpoints from different generations, different sports philosophies, different regions of the country/world, etc.

Growing up, the NBA was my favorite sport and Magic Johnson was the type of player I wanted to emulate. Understanding that I was never going to be 6' 9'', I still loved his game. I'm sure there was some time when I thought Magic was the best of all time ... although I don't today. Him and Bird undoubtedly made a enormous impact on the league like no one else - but I'm not sure either was the best. Magic ended up with 5 NBA Championships, Bird ended up with 3.

Michael Jordan is probably the most popular choice as best NBA player ever. It's hard to argue MJ's impact on the global game, his dominance, and sheer beauty playing the game. MJ ended his career with 6 NBA Championship.

There are a bunch of other players of mention in the category such as Wilt, Kareem, Oscar, etc.
But then there's Bill Russell ... who I never saw play. They guy has 10 championship rings - more than any other player! I used to think that the 10 championships were almost enough to give Russell the crown ... but then Robert Horry comes along.

"Big shot Rob" - as Wilbon likes to call him - has been a solid role player on 7 championship teams! More than Jordan, more than Magic, more than Bird, more than Wilt..... You get the picture. Bottom-line, Robert Horry ruins the claim of Bill Russell's as the best player of NBA history - and I think that's sad.

My second NBA thought: When are teams going to learn -- Drafting big, white centers in the top 10 is a huge mistake.
What was Sacramento thinking tonight? Spencer Hawes??
I honestly cannot remember a 7-foot-plus white center being drafted high who actually has an impact on his team. Rafael Araujo? Chris Mihm? Nikoloz Tskitishvili? Chris Kaman? (solid role player - c'mon)

6/19/2007

Toilets in Mountain View Office

I'm at corporate headquarters this week for work. This place is very lively, with tons of perks (like great free cafes, gyms, pools, dry cleaning service, valet parking, etc) - but over time the company has done a pretty good job bringing some of these high value perks to other offices like New York.

Well, today, I figured out what I really want to come to NY next... The toilets in the bathrooms here are AMAZING. You may think I'm either over-exaggerating or ridiculous... but hear me out.

First and foremost - who likes taking a deuce at work? NO ONE! Well - I've got to admit that if I had toilets like the ones we have here.... I may try and hold it in to ONLY do it at work.

Check it -- Each stall has a square panel on the right side of it -- about waist high standing up. There are 4 controls on the panel - which become at eye-level while sitting down:

1) Heat Control -- Yes -- the seats are being consistently heated so that when you sit down - it's comfortably warm. There are controls to move the temperature higher or lower, but in my brief experience tinkering wasn't necessary...the temperature was perfect at initial contact.
2 & 3) Rear and Frontal (for the ladies) "rinse" controls. Now, I've never been a "bidet guy"... Partially because bidets are rare, but primarily because it looks uncomfortable. Who wants to do their business on the toilet, then move (with your pants down) and crouch over another apparatus. It just doesn't scream "refreshing" to me. Well, these toilets solve that problem. The rear and frontal rinse buttons enable you to efficiently and refreshingly take care of your washing business. There are water temperature controls for these features as well.
4) Dryer - After you rinse with water - you of course need a dryer - which temperature is able to be set on the panel. I obviously used TP as well -- but I'm guessing because I'm a novice at it. I can foresee figuring out a way to ensure that the embedded rinse and air dryer combo is sufficient enough.

That's it. I felt the need to share. I've tried looking into how much one of these costs for my home, but haven't found it online yet ... I need to do a bit more researching...

6/14/2007

Political Debate Youtube style

A quick note in case you don't frequent YouTube.

Today the leading online video site and CNN announced an interesting format of upcoming Republican and Democratic debates whereby all of the questions will come from uploaded Youtube videos. I know I'll catch a little grief about promoting some Youtube announcement -- but I thought it was cool. I'm sure the entire events will be available on the site afterwards as well. Check out the announcement below.

6/11/2007

Metaphor - "Nah Mean"

I had to give a quick shout-out to an old-school friend, Becca. We go back a ways from the mean streets of the Rat's Mouth..

Becca has been working the record industry for a few years now - and came across Metaphor (the rapper in the video below) a few years ago. The kid is young - but apparently getting some real-deal hype. It's great for to see them start to see some momentum - so wanted to do my part in the "social media" world and share his new video. If you're a hip-hop fan - I hope you enjoy.

6/08/2007

Seat un-taken

I spent this past week in San Francisco at my companies national sales conference. Usually I find these weeks very long and fairly uneventful -- but this past week certainly wasn't.

The details of the two day festivities were exceptionally planned. One of the highlights was renting out AT&T Ballpark (while the Giants played on the road) for a huge party for the 900 of us attendees. We had celebrity MC for our yearly talent show (Carson Daly), but I'd have to say the highlight of the "wow factor" is in the following story:

I'm assuming most of you have attended a large conference in a hotel ballroom before. Seats were set-up in 10 seat round table formats. On Thursday morning, my buddy and I headed into the ballroom looking for seats. It was mildly crowded, but we found a table with no one else at it... I sat in the seat with direct straight view to the humongous stage and screen ... My buddy (JJ), being the "guys-guy" we both are -- felt we needed some elbow room -- so we left a seat in-between him and I.

Before starting the days session -- our VP kept telling people in the back rows to move up closer. Given the influx of people --- JJ and I both thought separately of moving next to each other, as to not have someone we didn't know sit in-between us, but we didn't do anything. A petite girl who'd been at the company for 2 weeks sat in-between us....

Anyway - the morning session was dedicated to clients coming in to talk to us about their marketing initiatives, how they thought we can serve them better, etc. Representatives from 4 companies including AT&T and Cadillac did the honors. After the session - they announced that there was a surprise... They were giving away prizes - including Gift cards for AT&T products (excluding the iPhone) as well as a new 2008 Cadillac (that hasn't even been built yet). They instructed us to look under our seats to see if we won anything.....

By now - I'm supposing you guessed it ...... THE GIRL WHO SAT IN-BETWEEN MY BUDDY AND I WON THE CAR!!! The seat in-between us won -- which by the way -- is the reason why they told everyone in the back row to move up ... They knew that no one was sitting in the winning seat...

Imagine if no one sat there --- my buddy and I woulda had to wrestle for the car!

I told myself that I'd give it one day of frustration -- and that I'd have to move on after that. And no - I couldn't sleep a wink on the red-eye flight home last night ... I was still thinking about it.

6/04/2007

Stepping in dog poop

Last Friday -- I stepped in dog poop. I was wearing my shoes with about 80 different crevices in them -- which the poop fit right at home with filling up completely...Clearly I've developed some thoughts on the subject...

1) Seriously People -- Curb your freakin dogs!!
I'm not a dog lover nor a dog hater. I don't see Amy and I ever owning our own dogs -- but we aren't against them at all ...We actually like playing with family and friends dogs... What we are against is committing ourselves to the responsibility of properly taking care of a non-human. Part of this responsibility is scooping the dogs excrement off the street - putting it in a bag - and throwing it away. EVERY TIME!
Do the people who decide not to pick-up their dog crap think it's going to magically disappear? Well - their half-correct ... it's going to disappear onto someone else's shoe! Not what I would call good Karma people...

2) Although the instant feeling of frustration right as you realize you stepped in crap is a bad one ... I found a worse feeling than this (and it's not getting on an elevator with the crap still on your shoe - praying the smell will not be too potent)...The winner of the worst part of stepping in dog crap during a work day is ..... Digging the crap out of your shoe in your companies bathroom, as several people come in and try to empathize... (and for the record, saying '' Oh man - that sucks" ...doesn't make someone feel any better)

3) I'm wondering how long my new doggy-doodoo radar walk is going to last. My approach to walking on the street has been temporarily altered. I'm now overly keen of looking down to see where my feet are going to step on the sidewalk -- and yes -- I'm even more appalled how much dog crap is on the sidewalks -- (SEE Point #1 please!!)

6/01/2007

Congrats Felchy and Dana!

Quick congrats are in order for Felch and Dana who got engaged this week! (I'm sorry Dana - but the only pictures I have of Felch are either of him asleep or giving the camera the finger like the hater he can be)

For those of you who I told the "bagel for dinner" story to -- Felch is the renown author of the phrase.

Felch is the center of a lot of friendly abuse (mostly by Colediggy), but on occasions like this -- I've gotta try and show nothing but happiness for the guy. I'm looking forward to snapping a picture of you taking a little snooze while your groomsman walk down the aisle... (Sorry - I couldn't resist).

In all seriousness -- Congrats to you both! It's great to see you both so happy!
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